Civil Air Patrol and other military stuff

Andrew and Chris are in their first year of Civil Air Patrol, which is an auxillary of the US Air Force. If you know my boys at all, you know that three of them live and breathe anything that is military. Andrew is a Civil War and World War ll buff. He has studied for hours on end about them, all on his own. My dad would have been so proud to tell his war stories to someone who actually loved that part of our history. Andrew knows all about the weapons, uniforms, gear and especially the D-Day invasion at Normandy. That is his favorite area and has studied it very deeply. He is also very well versed on the Civil War, and we are always feeding his craving about it by attending reenactments, and going to CW museums.

Michael is not into reading about the history aspects of the military, but he quite simply just likes guns and battles like a typical boy would. Andrew let him borrow his authentic WW ll helmet for Halloween and he was very thrilled. he also has several other authentic pieces we got from the Army surplus store.

James is almost a carbon copy of Andrew on his love of CW and WW ll history, but he has not delved in as deeply as Andrew yet. I am sure he will be reading more intently when his reading ability reaches the level it needs to read Andrew's books.

Chris is not into the military at all, but he did join Civil Air Patrol to learn about aviation and aerospace. He is also interested in the missions they go on in our local area. If your small engine plane goes down or if a child is lost in the woods, the Civil Air Patrol is a first responder. They are trained to search and rescue people and are prepared to sustain themselves in the wilderness for up to 72 hours. I think he also likes the academic challenge that comes with it. He loves to learn things thoroughly and be a fountain of knowledge. You would be impressed with how smart he can be, not just book smart, but common sense smart. Those things seem to come naturally to him.

None of us have any idea if this program will lead any of them to serve our country in the Air force. Honestly, my boys are more Army minded, but they are being open minded about it and plan to use this opportunity to learn new skills and to experience exciting things. In the coming months, they will have the chance to go up on flight missions and who knows??? We could have a pilot in the making........